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@Finale

I uh…I'm pretty sure I hated that finale. I mean, it was really stupid wasn't it? Like earlier gens stupid. You know, like the way it…everything, you know?

I might try to analyze this later when I've had a chance to absorb it, but right now I can't really find the wherewithal to say anything. I don't even feel angry right now, I'm just…numb.

I think something inside me might have broken, I need a chance to recalibrate.

Impressive, we fit the entire season into one thread. So, it's time to rank the episodes from 1-26 with 1 being the best, and 26 being the worst.

Couple hours late, but hey. We've got a year.

Guys, I'm still reeling from that fight, it was intense. Anyway, let me just say a few things.
1. I'm honestly starting to think this show's achilles heels is that it has so many characters. I like the Mane6 but the writers don't seem very good at focusing on all of them, just 1 or 2. TK tells me that this show would work a lot better if it was Twilight being solo. Because the way it is they always have to work the other 5 into the plot and it just ends up all wrong.

2. Dat ending. It's not a Deus Ex Machina, because it was alluded too, and by this point we all know that Friendship is all powerful. But that doesn't change that Rainbow Power always makes the villain look like a pushover, even after all that. BTW Tirek is probably my favorite baddie now.

3. The Designs for the Super-Mane6 did not come out well. They probably sounded a lot better on paper.

4. This episodes proves it: Meghan McCarthy is great at making big plots, but she is terrible at resolving them. Which I've been saying for months.

I can't believe it's Hiatus time all over again. The withdrawal's gonna be unholy this time.
Anyone else, any thoughts?

Last week’s episode was a letdown. Not bad, but disappointing. But I was really excited for this week’s episode(s). It’s the finale after all. It should be good. And it was really really good! I love it! Went into this without spoilers (didn’t even know Tear Ech was a G1 villain) and was not disappointed. The only bad thing I can say about this was that the ending was a bit rushed, but I’m not really that bothered by it.

Great way to end the season. If this was the way the series ended, I would be fine with that.

How was season four overall? I’ll get into that later.

I'm not the only one who got a Dragon Ball vibe from this episode, right? I mean, with the absorption of life energy, the huge power blasts, the transformations, and the manes changing colors and such, that's the way it felt to me.

As for withdrawal, I'm already preparing for the winter ahead.

@Finale

I invited a friend over to watch it with me, He's not a Brony, and I didn't trick him, He knew that we were going to watch it as it plays through a stream site. Also He's only seen the first 4 episodes of the show, and the EQG movie (I think you'll know what he prefers already). I asked him to watch it with me, because, I just had a bad feeling in my gut. I didn't look at any information about it. I just cut myself off of pony sites as soon as the trailer for it came out. I didn't know why, but I just felt like something could be big, and my skepticism was beating my optimism.

As soon as it started, I had to fill in what has happened because of last episode, Thankfully this episode kinda did the job of getting him up to speed with the general stuff. Instead of me explaining it to him. Then we get to the song, and we jokingly said "Oh my god, its a princess that wants more song! DAMN IT DISNEY!!!" We kinda talked over the song, I watched it later, and its alright, at least its more than "I want more" its more of a purpose, more than just being idle in her position.

Then we got to the villain, we shut the fuck up on that, and we thought, this is kinda intimating. We then get to see Discord, I think I told him what was Discord before, but never got to see him on how he looks, and acts. We were both laughing, because he's funny.

When they said they had to "Sacrifice themselves" I thought immediately, "They're going to kill themselves??!!" But that's me getting dark on the thing, of course the wouldn't do that.

Then when the betrayals started to happen, We were just laughing because it is literally Betrayal after Betrayal. "Everyone's getting Betrayed!!!" We both said. Then we get to the fight scene, And My god, we were both hyped, Even he's like, "Why am I so hyped for this!?!" It was super fucking fun to watch! Then to the part were that Rainbow power toys basically make their appearance, At least we got to see what was going on with the Rainbow power toyline thing was based on.

The final song comes up and we actually listen to it, and again it was fine. At the credits, he said "That's actually pretty good!" Then we went back to playing Metal Gear Rising. Which he continues to suck at it.

I'm actually very happy how Season 4 did. You know me, and I thought it might keep going down, especially after the shot that made me completely Skeptical about the Premiere of S4 that last summer made. But it just worked out very well, Had some of the greatest episodes yet. I can't compare the other seasons before, because its been awhile since I seen them, But its been a damn good season. Season 5, I can wait, Even if it is going to start (At the beginning I think) of next year.

Alright, I've had a chance to think about the finale and I think my major problem was that it was really badly written: The writing was just obscenely lazy, and what could have been an opportunity for some genuine character growth and world building was passed over in favor of shoehorning together the same story with the same characters using the same tropes that we've already seen a million times. What's worse is that the show had to shatter its own internal logic in order to make these changes plausible. So let me go through step by step what I had problems with and what I think could have been handled better.

#1: Twilight…shut up.

So the main theme of the finale has been how Twilight doesn't feel like she has found her place in the world yet. It gets resolved by Twilight realizing how important her friends are to her and that her place in society is intimately linked to them.

…people, this is the exact same point we've been working over since the very first episode of season 1. Having Twilight learn that basic lesson makes sense at the beginning of the series when she was an asocial nerd who needed to get out more. It does not make sense now that she has been elevated to the rank of God-empress, beloved of the people and ruler of the realm.

Now yes, I understand that the entire foundation of the series is built around exploring the details of what it means to have friends and manage social relationships, but those are elaborations on the basic fact which was established in the pilot that friendship=good. Twilight feeling out of place and having to relearn the basic value of friendship at this point is as absurd as a physicist having to remaster his multiplication tables. It really turned me off to the character honestly. I mean shit, this mare has saved the world a handful of times, achieved immense political power, and ascended to the rank of demigod by the age of, what, 20? And she's seriously complaining about not having enough going on in her life? Get the fuck over yourself Twilight.

#2: Discord…speak up!

Most of the things I actually enjoyed about this episode were related to Discord. I enjoyed the visual humor with him a lot and de Lancie nailed the voice work, as always. I thought his betrayal made a lot of sense, and it was nice to see him as a villain again. The thing that really disappointed me though was that they had an amazing opportunity to develop some real character drama with him and they just squandered it.

I thought that the conflict between Discord's love of his new friendships and his desire to remain true to himself made a lot of sense and could have been used to explore a classic problem inherent in human relationships. I didn't like how they introduced this problem and then resolved it not through some character growth on Discord's part, but by having him get overpowered and then come crawling back to the ponies like a kicked dog. I thought the episode would have made a lot more sense if the focus got shifted away from Twilight and put on Discord as he struggled with his own conflicted feelings. Hell, Discord could have actually been made into a complex character who still fit with the general tenor of the show if they handled it properly. Instead he's just a character who exists to serve the needs of the plot.

#3: Magic is lame

I think one of the things that really annoyed me about this episode was how they destroyed any of the mystery there was to be had about magic in the MLP universe and effectively reduced it down to colorful energy which you shoot at the bad guy. I feel like the mlp universe has always ridden the line between depicting magic as a kind of mysterious force and just a quantifiable natural phenomenon, but this recent episode really pushed it over the line into the second category. Instead of magic being this strange thing of ritual practices and divine influence, it just becomes this transferable commodity which can be used to accomplish various physical feats. I really didn't like the idea that Luna, Celestia, and Discord aren't these semi-spiritual entities with some intimate link to the heavenly bodies and the forces of chaos, but rather are just mortal containers for these naturalistic phenomena. It takes a lot of the fun out of it for me.

The battle scenes with their use of laser magic looked pretty absurd as well in my opinion.

#4: The Box

I think this is the thing which pissed me off the most about the finale. Are you seriously telling me that the secret contained by this stupid box, the mystery which we've been building up towards for the entire fucking season, is…uh…what was it that the box contained exactly? All I remember from color vomit which was that last few minutes was that they opened the box and it made the tree of harmony cum rainbows all over the ponies, transforming them into the next batch of cheap plastic toys for Hasbro to sell. At this point, by the utterly arbitrarily convention of plot convenience, it was decided that the tree cum shot magic was more powerful than all the rest of the world's magic combined and the centaur guy was defeated. I mean that…that isn't even funny. That is writing I'd expect from a goddamn toddler. Just really bad.

Oh, and for some reason the magic box decided to randomly grow a completely mismatched crystal library to replace the old one. I like that they're willing to make a big change like that and completely demolish stuff but…I really liked that library =/ It fit perfectly with the aesthetic of Ponyville and just screamed sleepy smalltown charm. Now instead we've got this ugly crystal fortress where the justice league legion of doom Twilight and her friends can discuss their plans to take over the world.

Anyway, I think those were my major issues. I was also a little bothered by the apparent lack of logic in the way some of the characters acted (Discord trusting in the guy who keeps talking about how power>friendship, Twilight sacrificing her magic to save her friends when it's the only shred of a chance they have against being fucked) but that really just goes back to the issues of sloppy, convenient writing I outlined above.

I was really disappointed in any case. Still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't morbidly curious to see where the fuck they take this wreck at this point. Yeah…I'll be sticking around

Here's to season 5.

Good finale, good villain, good season, too lazy to spend an hour typing out more detail. If this were a series finale I would have been satisfied with the show ending here, but I of course am excited to see where season 5 will go. I really do love the round table thing they added.

do you think it will suffer the teen titan effect crimson?

Alright, so I'm getting in pretty late in the thread game and basically everything I could say has been said already. Gotta love that we have had the first extended fight scene in the show's history (the previous one being that weaksauce battle between Celestia and NMM at the start of the season) and that it was totally freaking awesome.

But there is one thing I noticed: in episode 25 when Discord first shows up, at about 11:20 he starts joking about himself becoming an alicorn. Then Dash knocks the crown off his head and says "in your dreams," and Discord says "I never dream of such things; ask princess Luna."

So you know that this means right: Princess Luna has visited Discord's dreams!

How awesome is that?

I mean, imagine if that were an episode – Luna is going through her list of ponies she has to check up on and realizes that Discord is next. So she goes to visit him and shenanigans ensue. Imagine what the physical embodiment of chaos himself would have dreams about! That would be freaking sweet.

So, yeah, anyway, kickass episode. I'd say season 4 is a very close second to season 2, which seems to have become the gold standard. Let's see what season 5 can do.

>inb4 this thread lasts until season 5 starts
cuz u guize r so god damned slow
And that was a pretty fucking rad episode except for the end.
I missed the first 10 minutes since they started early, but oh well, I can watch it later on the youtubes.
The rest was perfect and action-y, especially the final fight between Princess^4 Twilight and Tirek with all the pew pew pew and stuff.
But the very end was just missing something, it was sad…

But let's forget the shitty parts and focus on Twilight being best God.

@Fifths
Well, aren't you just a tub of fun?

Oh my god, I wanted spike to stop talking as soon as he opened his mouth after last week's episode. Anyways as much as I loved the actual fight scene my favorite thing about this one was probably Discord fucking with Tirek and then teaming up with Tirek and then hanging out with Tirek. That was a pretty cool idea on the writers' part imo.

All in all…

It was pretty exciting! Also dat Coco Pommel cameo

It's a shame the mane 6 just kinda floated around and shot lasers in their rainbow pony forms, though. Also did anyone else get a good laugh out of how Twilight's Playhouse literally made Rarity's jaw drop

(enhance)

Still on the floor typing this lol

So I bothered to watch the finale despite only having watched three or four earlier episodes this season. If there's one positive thing I can say it did a good job summing the season up for plebeians like myself. Overall I enjoyed it.

I liked the concept of the villain, though perhaps he could've been written to be less one-dimensional. Stealing everyone's magic like a wall of death crossing Equestria is fine in my book. But the main problem I had was that his actions never seemed justified; not to say that the villain should have been the good guy, but he didn't seem to have any great reason to conquer a land of colorful horses other than avenging his earlier failure to conquer a land of colorful horses. It also seemed like a waste of a perfectly good plot device to ignore Tirak's brother. Shit, I can't even remember his name he was so unimportant to the story. A piece of medal on a string that he once owned played a more important role. It's like if Twilight saved the world from Michael Jordan's evil brother with an old pair of Michael Jordan's shoes as opposed to MJ himself, who would probably have been more effective.

The castle at the end. Jesus Christ. At least every chronologically-ambiguous fanfic featuring Twilight's library is now non-canonical, which is funny.

But it was pretty good. Not perfect, not brilliant by standard measures of brillaince, but I at least had fun.

Edit at Platus, below

I don't think that's the case. I think him being friends with Starswirl means the exact opposite of what you assume it does. Starswirl has never been anything more than a quasi-cop out character they can throw in any scene from the past as a nice callback. Not that that's a bad thing or a sign of bad writing or whatever, but he hasn't been given any substance and I doubt he ever will. Tirak's brother might end up in the same boat, though unlike Starswirl he's presumably immortal, so the fact that he's still alive gives him a better chance than Starswirl of being given some proper attention.

@Exudes

Regarding Tirak's brother, it's pretty clear that they are setting up a plotline for next season – what with the random mention of him being friends with Starswirl and all. That probably explains why he was such a footnote.

Good job, Twilight. Way to hang on to those books.
Anyway, yeah, my thoughts. I liked it a lot! The three Princesses singing together is something that I never realized I needed in my life, but now that I have it I'm sure I'll live at least 5 years longer. The destruction of the library actually made me sad, and the fact that the image on this TV Tropes page could very quickly be canon is something I'm surprisingly okay with.

Also, the bit with her wiggling the moon around made me laugh. Like so many other things in this show, it reminded me of a Friendship is Witchcraft joke. These guys are wizards.

Guys, please don't downvote Fifths for his critique.

Anyway, this episode was a whole lot of something.

I liked the plot angle of approaching how Twilight felt so estranged with her own role, which tied in nicely with what was about to come. I noticed how Twilight always indicated being uncomfortable with her position. And also how it always seemed like she was the princess of a freaking library…and Twilight knew it. She had all this godlike power and yet absolutely none of it was going to use. A feeling that Twilight expressed when she offered to step to a challenge, only to find disappointingly that Celestia was giving the challenge Discord. Finally this episode brings those concerns to light and shows what Twilight is really thinking. To which Celestia gives her motherly advice of course. I usually skip songs but I didn't skip the princesses giving Twilight such loving reassurance. A kind loving motherly figure; that's the Celestia I know

Discord and Tirek were great, I loved their characters and their dynamic. Discord was still a better villain though. I find it hilarious that Tirek was defeated EXACTLY THE SAME WAY as he was in G1!

The fight scene pleased my love for DBZ. No Mark, you were not the only one who saw the connection. Definite DNZ influence here. Even Tirek himself would have been a great DBZ villain. But the fact it was between a villain worthy of DBZ and….a little pony princess….made it hilarious the entire way through! Love it

Only thing I didn't like about the episode, and this is where I find myself in agreement with fifths:

That box was stupid.

After all we've been through in this season, that's it?

It just opens up, unleashes a shitload of rainbows, gives free makeovers and undoes everything. Like in ways far more improbable than the elements of harmony. The elements simply counteract evil….but this thing just….solves every goddam problem. Probably freshened AJ's breath too.

Eh… I didn't like that. I think there was more potential to be had in the story than it just being a box that just fixes everything. Even just a little more narrative could have fixed that. But it felt like the last 4 minutes of the episode had to rush to the end and get it over with so to hell with everything; just have the box turn the mane6 into unstoppable gods for unexplained reasons and be done with it…yea…nah…that could have ended better

But oh well.

At least we got this

Blue Screen, there's critique and then there's just being unpleasable. God damn, yeah the episode isn't perfect but it's in no way a train wreck.

But of course, I think we all agree about the box. But what do you expect, there's never anything but Instant win buttons for these situations. I'm just happy that it was a pretty sweet ride up to that point.

Great ending to a great season, I really love how it tied up many questions we were wondering about Twilights role as a princess as well as what this meant for the status quo of the mane six. I felt the narrative of the finale felt like it tied into the season much more strongly then past seasons, I mean season 2 was my favorite finale, but it didn't really tie into the season at all, just one day we found out Twilight has a brother that she was close to but never talked about up until that episode while this finale tied into many themes that were playing throughout the series and tied those ends successfully which many shows fail to do..

As for the box, to be honest I actually forgot about it.. I mean they haven't really mentioned it since the first episode so that could be why I was satisfied with the box unleashing power like the Elder wand, because I completely forgot about it and therefore had little interest to what was inside, though I can understand how people more invested in it, may have not been as content with the box opening and merely turning the mane 6 into an 80's rock band… Anyway I liked it, and I really liked the episode, and the opening song is certainly a favorite of mine.

Best part of the episode: Ponyville now has a Jedi Council.
However it is sad that we have to say goodbye to such an important character of the show..

There's also a difference between sticking to your guns on an issue and being a fanboy who can't handle dissent.

I pointed out the parts I liked along with the parts I didn't and venues I thought could have been taken to improve it. That post was a thought-out critique by someone who has been following the show for years, and it did not deserve to be downvoted to hell.

I can 100% agree with this. Even though most of the time I disagree with fifths and his, well, harsh critiques you will never hear me say I don't think he should post in the thread. He is hard to please and sometimes his standards seem impossibly high, but his posts are still well thought out and I can respect him for that.
Did he insult any one of us personally when he made that long post about how much he didn't like the finale? No, he didn't, so stop getting your panties in a twist and learn to respect other people's differing opinions for once. I would rather have a thousand posters like fifths stating their negative opinion than have a thread of circlejerkers who downvote anyone that has anything critical to say.

Yeah but I'm pretty sure what Fifths was saying was honest critique. He was disappointed by scenes that we may like and explained why he didn't like it in a thought out way, he didn't start off his post by going "ANTI-FLAME SHIELD ACTIVATE! This finale was stoopid because Twilight was still an alicorn! Why is she still an alicorn?! That's stoopid. Why is Discord a good guy? Discord should be a villain in a true Faustian Vision of My Little Pony! That's stoopid! What was with the rainbow powers?! They just did that to sell toys to little girls and those Hasdrones! That's Stoopid! This whole finale was stoopid because Meghan McCarthy is a stoopid writer, -100/10 DON'T DOWNVOTE THIS COMMENT".

I'm going to be completely honest, I read Fifth's "Downvoted so low even the gods won't let us view upon it" post thinking "Oh shit, where's the part where Fifths calls us all retarded man children, orgasms on a picture of Jesus and kicks a Rarity plush across the room." But as reading it all I can think of are a few people sitting at their computers going "THIS ISN'T MY OPINION! I must protect the ability for people to have opinions except for Fifths! downvote That'll teach him a lesson!"

Tl;Dr, I think it's a cool idea to have someone who doesn't agree with the collective of The Almighty Season 4 Finale and its not plebby goodness. Especially one that doesn't agree but doesn't try to make you feel bad for having an opinion other than theirs/being a complete jerk.

Oh so now I'm a jerky fanboy that can't handle dissent because a dude's clearly being too hard on an episode? Yeah, that's cool. Sheesh, I could've stayed on TVT for this.

Don't get pissy about it, son. You can feel free to disagree with him like many of us do (notice how even those of us that loved the episode are defending him) and make a post arguing against his opinions, but when you just downvote because his harsh post about "being too hard on an episode" made you angry then that is counterproductive to thread discussion. Perhaps if you didn't want to be called a jerky fanboy (actually, nobody called you a jerk) then you shouldn't have started calling names yourself?

I gotta say I'm looking forward to this one when I get to there…
…But in the meantime I watched another episode! Though admittedly with some technical difficulties…

Hey, makes me wonder if I can fit my whole Season 1 experience in here before the next thread!

@The Box

To be fair, it's possible that the use of the box comes with certain downsides or restrictions that we simply aren't aware of yet. I mean, even the Elements of Harmony needed to be physically on the ponies in order to be used, and that restriction was the basis of both Discord's attempts to foil them. The writers aren't stupid; they know that a "fix everything" button that doesn't have a restriction will just kill the plot. I'd wager that the rules and limits of the rainbow powers will be a big part of the season 5 premier.

@CrashGordon and "wahaha!"

To my knowledge, the first appearance of that laugh is in Season One, when Rarity gets butterfly wings:

@Platus: Ah, I was right, this IS the origin! Thanks!
Not the same "origin identity crisis" as I had before, because I really didn't know, but still a surprise.

Wahaha, wahaha…

WAHAHA WAHAHA!!

I gotta be honest, I hate most of Rarity's memes, and I'm still not sure how I feel about this one, but it's leagues ahead of crap like "Raricow" and "Imma Snuggle You".

On a sidenote, looking through your video's related vids…
"That Man" by Caro Emerald…

Nice song, but what?

More relatedly, it also has Mr Enter's S4+ Wishlist, more understandable since that's actually MLP related.
Though randomly running into one of his vids like that has me all like

Wahaha?

I watched Twilight's Kingdom today. Guess what?
Fukken saved for future generations.

So anyway, now tat the season is over, we can all enjoy this:

And someone found a solution to the whole "tree" issue:

And, also, Equestria Daily has some new minecraft servers up. It even comes with reproductions of a few places we might find familliar:

So, yeah, good things all around.

It was a good episode till I saw the Ponies transform. Fucking Hasbro did it again. Made it canon to sell toys.

It's not about being a fanboy or being too hard on a show. He saw some things he didn't like, some seemed a little silly, like Twilight who has achieved more than all but three ponies so far yet STILL doesn't think she has a place in the kingdom which is plain old Silly or Discord's redemption being a little more of "Oh shit, well looks like I'm powerless will you guys forgive me?" instead of developing his character.

But then everyone decides that since he wasn't 100% positive about it that they felt that his comment shouldn't be seen by anyone.

Tl;Dr Opinions!

@Crash not liking Rarity memes. That's it Crash, I've had it. You get out and accept your lord and master Rarity and her memes or……

http://youtubedoubler.com/
This website is great for this shit:

Twi VS Tirek with Guile's Theme.
Twi VS Tirek with ROW ROW ROW GALO POWA
(I actually made these two up myself but I bet there are multiple people who already did one with the Guile's theme).

Hey guys, imagine super God mode Twilight Sparkle with the Alicorn Amulet while that one comet thing from the comical was flying over head.

@Episode
The time for the finale is once again upon us. I've always enjoyed the adventure aspect of the show far more than the slice of life side of things, so I was eagerly looking forward to things. Sadly, /mlp/ had to go and spoil who the villain was. I've always been yearning for the Smooze to make their triumphant (and unstoppable) return and the reintroduction of Gen 1 villains takes us one step closer to that dream.

I actually watched Tirek's Gen 1 special a while back in my attempt to watch something from each generation (yes, I even saw some Gen 3.5) so I actually had some knowledge about him. While it's good they didn't copy/paste the plot, I was still a little bummed the Rainbow of Darkness didn't make an appearance.

From a plot perspective, Discord's betrayal was probably the weakest element. Maybe it's been due to the fanfics that hyped him up as some Machiavellian villain, but Discord's really stupid. I was fully anticipating his teaming up with Tirek to be a master ruse--it just didn't make much sense. To see he was being completely sincere and could flip flop after a minute long conversation with someone who obviously isn't worth trusting even as far as throwing, even going as far as including the standard "join me and together we can rule the empire" shtick. Perhaps Tirek really was right, and Discrod is just as weak minded as his brother.

I was happy Twilight's uselessness as a princess was actually a major plot element. Could it be that her lack of doing anything all season long was actually planned, or was it just a happy coincidence that was exploited? Regardless, it was used and that at least somewhat makes up for the frustration all season long. I just hope they don't consider it "done" and carry on with the status quo like nothing happened.

Maybe it's due to me grinding through One Piece and its shitty flashback filler, but those flashbacks sucked. They didn't add anything whatsoever to the plot and just seemed like useless filler to pad things out at the end of the first episode. Replacing them with something worthwhile--like, say, a flashback to Tirek breaking out of Tartarus or something--would have been a much better use of the time.

The fight scenes were really good, as was the animation (dat stain glass melting), but the biggest flaw would have to be a structural one--these kinds of plots just don't work well crammed into two episodes. We've had Tirek running around for two seasons, and yet there was nothing until everything has to get shoved into the finale. If Hasbro would just let the writers flex their muscles and make multi-episode story arcs (actual story arcs, not the "foreshadowing in the last fifteen seconds of an episode" kind of stuff) that can actually flesh things out and build up the hype, it would do wonders to this show.

9.3/10.

I kept on thinking Tirek's "powered" form was voiced by the guy who played General Martok in DS9. It had that some "gravelly" tone to it.

AugustDay said:

I just want you guys’ opinion on the matter. Am I the only one who thinks it’s a bit much? Am I the only one who wishes people would stop with the mocking of fans who dislike Twilicorn?

The "I'm leaving the fandom!" reactions happen all the time--especially on /mlp/. There was a 150+ post thread complaining about how Faust's "vision" was now lost because the Treebrary (my new favorite nickname) was destroyed, symbolizing the destruction of the show. Including the standard "I'm leaving the fandom forever!" comments. Then, there was a 100+ post thread complaining about the complaining about the Treebrary being destroyed.

It's usually an ego thing. The people who make it a big spectacle, posting multi-paragraph posts or blog entries, are usually the ones with the biggest ego. They simply have to announce to all why they're leaving. This sort of thing happens all the time on Fimfiction. Someone gets butthurt over something (Knighty's "tyranny," Meeester being a dick, etc), they post this big blog post about how they've deleted all their stories and are leaving forever because of how "cynical/aggressive/mean" the fandom's begun. Three weeks later everything's back to normal, they were banned for a day for reposting their stories, and the drama train carries on its merry way.

TL;DR: people don't commit. They say they're getting off the ride, stay buckled in, and everyone laughs at the stupid drama they kicked up. It then becomes a stereotype.

@Fifths criticisms

1) There's a big difference here: Twilight's now a princess. We see that her concerns are simply that she isn't really been given anything to do. She still has her friends, but her role as a princess is seemingly useless. Previously, she had a problem socializing, now her problem is feeling her job is pointless.

Tirek presented a unique threat. Twilight and the princessses attempted to resolve that threat by using power and force. As we've seen many times previously, the "world" of mlp works very differently. Friendship is a very powerful force--so powerful that it can no sell a Gen 1 villain. Twilight and the princesses were so focused on dealing with the threat, they neglected the universe's most powerful weapon, which is actually very realistic. What's the first thing most people do when there's a problem? They try and fix it themselves. Only later do they seek others' support.

Twilight very clearly had very little of anything. She wasn't all that powerful, her "politcal power" consisted of serving as arbitrator of a flea market and waving at a diplomat. If you were given the position of CEO of a large company, but never really did anything of importance in that position, wouldn't you feel similar to Twilight?

3) Your headcanon's showing. Not a single time in the show has magic ever been shown as being "mysterious" or "ritual practices." The magic of the show appears to follow the "think of it and it happens" approach with regards to unicorns. You think of the spell and then it happens. I don't know where the divine thing comes from. The princesses have never been shown to be anything more than more powerful ponies. The fact that they aren't divine only goes to reinforce the show--they all have special talents just like everypony else does.

4) Harmony, or you could even say the "seed of harmony." Tirek was fucking shit up, and the Tree of Harmony knwe that issue had to be addressed. Yeah, the super saiyan powers were gaudy as hell and it would have been cooler if /mlp/'s Prophecy really had been true (the Everfree Castle becomes Twilight's home) but I'll take a DBZ fight over magical tea parties any day of the week.

You're forgetting the title. Friendship = magic. In mlp, friendship is the most powerful form of magic around, and Twilight and her friends have oodles of it. Enough to defeat Tirek. The Tree of Harmony apparently has a friendship fetish.

Now, the wait begins…

Of course now that I actually have the time to keep up on ponies the show goes on hiatus until the fall sigh

@xTSGx:

But xTSGx, Discord's betrayal was a master ruse. So masterful that the true key to victory was not a deus ex machina, but a stunning display of chessmastery and obfuscating stupidity.

Erm…click the image.

"I don't think the writers are this smart" Is that why they included the scene where Discord has the book and somehow knew which pages to bookmark? But then again most of the people on 4chan would no doubt blame that obvious point of "Discord was obviously faking the betrayal" on poor writing.

I like this idea.

I mean, I really like this idea. The whole "Discord is a super mastermind in addition to being fun and awesome" bit just works so well, and it would totally fit in with how quickly he was forgiven at the end (since, presumably, Celestia and Luna would have been in on this).

There is one problem:

As we saw in that awesome fight scene, Twilight and Tirek were basically evenly matched. However, this fight took place after Tirek absorbed Discord's magical energy, which I imagine was pretty close to alicorn level – an eventuality that Discord, in this scenario, would have had to of foreseen. Had Tirek fought Super Princess Twilight without the boost from Discord, he almost certainly would have lost.

This does not mean that the scenario is impossible. It does, however, seem like a super risky plan, since it basically demands that (a) Twilight and Tirek will be almost perfectly matched, since if Twilight won the plan would have been moot and if Tirek won then Twilight wouldn't have been forced to give up her magic and so wouldn't have gotten the key, (b) that Twilight would have asked for Discord's freedom to "teach him the magic of friendship" instead of letting him rot, and © that the rainbow power would be enough to beat Tirke even after he had the power of four alicorns.

Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket.

Now, don't get me wrong, it may very well be that Discord knew enough about Tirek, Twilight, and the box to be confident in his plan, but it will take no small amount of ret-conning in season five to make that plausible. So, for now, I'd categorize that scenario as "cool but implausible."

Haha, nice try Rarity, but you don't have a penis!

On another note, I just remembered another thing about Sonic Rainboom that I forgot to mention last night.
I think one of the things in Cloudsdale had a picture of a high-heeled boot on it. i.e. One made for a human… Seems kinda odd.

She has a horn.

Hey you guys . . . . DOUBLE BINGO!

@Platus' bingo
>large role for a background pony
When did that happen?

>Luna episode
It was a Sweetie Belle episode, just as Sleepless was a Scootaloo one. Just cause Luna's in it doesn't mean she's the center of the episode.

If you follow the link, all of the details are in the notes.

EDIT: Oh look at that, they're also magically right here.

Explanations on the winning squares:

Diagonal:

“Large role for a background pony” – Bulk Biceps wins this one. He went from a one-note gag to a character with a name, a spot on the Equestria Games team, and adorable shipping fuel with Fluttershy.

“Flying lessons” – we got that in “Princess Twilight Sparkle,” the season opener.

“Free hugs” – duh.

“Season 5” – also duh.

“Separation anxiety” – this one is a bit vague, but there are a few instances that might count. the big one, though, is Seabreeze being worried about not going to see his family in “It’s Not Easy Being Breezies.” If being worried that you’ll never see you kid again doesn’t count at “separation anxiety,” I don’t know what does.

Vertical:

“New sapient species” – the breezies.

“Scootacripple” – in “Flight to the Finish,” the fact that Scootaloo should be able to fly by now is a major plot point.

“Luna Episode” – the plot of “For Whom the Sweetie Belle Tolls” is mostly driven by Luna, so I’m counting it.

“Season five” – duh, again.

“New family member shows up” – Maude Pie.

@New family memeber:
We also get AJ's crazy hoarder auntie (or whatever she was in relation to AJ) in Pinkie Apple Pie and a cameo from her again in Filli Vanilli

I don't think we should count the Luna episode. Sure, she was a big part of the episode but she wasn't the focus of the episode. I'm not counting it. Still, we do get bingo even without a Luna episode.

Does anyone else want a Tirek tattoo after seeing the finale?

I think he'd make a sweet tattoo.

Also the comments here are gold

Hey, in Tumblr news, Molly returned from neverspace! But… she evolved.

BSOD Cane why was this not done before? For this I commend you Alex you now got your 11 killstreak here is your prize.

(edit) Page Get!!!!!